But, it wasn't like Purdue could stop this Dajuan bastard from hurting them. He was countless miles away. Purdue should have gone with Sam like Sam had wanted at the start. At least then, Dajuan could focus his blood lust on just Purdue. From where he was, there was nothing Purdue could do to stop Mama May's vision for Sam from happening. He would drown—and Purdue wouldn't even have a chance to save him from his fate.
“So this isn't even a ransom situation, aye? No amount of money could change your mind?”
“No!” Dajuan hissed. “This has nothing to do with money. This is about life for life, an exchange.”
“I thought it was just for the Wharf Man? Sure he was a very big lad but he can't have been worth multiple lives. I don't care if he weighed as much as three other people put together, that's just not fair.”
“It was not just him! The other men on the submarine you sunk! Alton! Oniel!”
Those were actually valid points, Purdue had to admit. There wasn't going to be any way to talk Dajuan out of it, that much was clear. He was fully committed to the harshest and most violent course of action.
“So that's the only way we can resolve this then, aye? With you slaughtering friends of mine? That's mature. No chance for an actual discourse.”
“No,” Dajuan growled. “I will tell you where we are. You can come if you want. Depending on what I decide to do with them, you might find what is left of your friends.”
Purdue could feel the conversation drawing to a futile ending. There wasn't any negotiation to be had. This entire phone call was just Dajuan's way of making his presence known. He was just putting himself on display, showcasing all of his violent tendencies to make it clear that he wasn't someone to be trifled with. It was a crude tactic but was proving to be fairly effective, since Purdue's blood was boiling from his helplessness to assist his friends.
Dajuan gave him the location and then laughed. “Yes, I think I will leave little pieces of them here just as keepsakes for you. Yeah. A finger or a toe.”
Purdue couldn't play calm anymore. This new threat was really going to try to hurt them. “Let them go! Now!”
“That is not going to happen, David Purdue. You should never have double-crossed the Wharf Man. Never. No one had ever done it before and you should not have been the first.”
“He double-crossed me first—”
Dajuan obviously wasn't in the mood to listen to reason. “Any final words to your friends?”
The phone call lingered in a slow, static-filled moment. Purdue didn't know what to say, he had no idea where to even begin. He wanted to apologize and admit that he was to blame for them even ending up in this awful, possibly fatal, position.
Sam spoke before Purdue had the chance to find his own words. “Don't worry about us, Purdue. This guy isn't the Wharf Man. He is all talk and very little bite. You should see him. He's not much—”
There was a crash and Sam let out a pained groan. Dajuan evidently had more bite than Sam claimed.
“Sam. Daisy. Aya. I'm so sorry this is happening. I will—”
“Goodbye, David Purdue,” Dajuan cut in. “I hope we will meet very soon.”
The phone call ended, leaving Purdue sitting alone in stunned silence. At any second, Sam Cleave could be dead. Mama May was right—and Purdue should have been there to help his friend.
Sam spat some blood onto the floor. Dajuan had some fairly sharp knuckles that made his punches have a little extra spice. Sam shook his head, trying to toss away the pain. If this was his end, he wasn't going to give Dajuan the satisfaction of seeing him hurt or afraid. He was going to die with his dignity well intact.
“Is that really all you got?”
Another punch knocked against his skull.
“I am going to kill you last,” Dajuan said, leaning down so his face was right in front of Sam's, close enough that his putrid breath brushed against Sam's cheek. “That way, you can watch these women hurt. And they will. You can see which of them is the toughest, see which one can stay alive the longest.”
Dajuan really was more of a monster than an actual human being. Aya wasn't exaggerating at all when she described him. On the contrary, she might have actually undersold just how bad he could be.
Dajuan turned away, his back to his prisoners, like he was mulling over his potential options. The scenes he was probably imagining must have been horrifying. He looked over his tray of sharp instruments like a painter deciding on a brush.
Sam saw the pearl resting beside the tray. If only he had that in his grasp. He could use it to shoot blasts of water from the pipes above, probably hit Dajuan with enough water to bring him down. But he wasn't touching the pearl. He wasn't even close to being able to take hold of it and use its power.
It occurred to him that the second pearl wasn't beside the first. He glanced down around the dark room but didn't see the pearl necklace until his gaze shifted back to Erica's neck. It was still there, the pearl was just hanging beside the other beads on her collar.
Dajuan's back was still to them. This was Sam's best chance to really communicate but he would have to be quiet. It was just dumb luck that Erica was seated beside him.
“The pearl,” Sam muttered very quietly under his breath and out of the corner of his mouth. He needed to be quiet enough that Dajuan couldn't hear but loud enough for Erica to be able to understand what he was saying. “You have to use your pearl...”
“What?” Erica whispered back, her worried gaze still on Dajuan. She was very careful with her volume. “What do you mean?”
He felt bad for Erica. She was the least involved with any of this. She wasn't part of the Order of the Black Sun. She was barely even an acquaintance of Sam's but now she could be killed just because of the minimal association. She was just with the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. She shouldn't have even been there to begin with and now the heiress might suffer some horribly gruesome death.
Erica probably had no idea what any of this was even about. Aya knew how dangerous Dajuan was personally and Daisy joined the Order of the Black Sun knowing that things could get dangerous for its members. The two of them at least knew something like this was always a real possibility and had a chance of happening. Erica didn't understand that. She joined the journey out of stubbornness and curiosity, nothing more. She didn't deserve to die for that but now she was going to anyway. It wasn't fair at all.
“The pearl is touching you. You might be able to use it.”
Erica glanced beneath her chin at the pearl necklace around her neck. It was starting to click with her about what exactly Sam was implying, but it was just a desperate hope. Sam had no idea if that was how the pearl worked. Every time he used his, he had done so by holding it in his hand. Who knew if it would work to just be making physical contact with it. This was the only way to find out and it was as good of a time as any to test it and see what happened.
Dajuan turned around and clapped his hands together. He had finally made his decision. One of the three women beside Sam was going to die; they all were but only one of them would start the suffering.
Sam shot a glance to Erica who was too terrified to concentrate on using the pearl. She might only have seconds left of her life.
“Focus,” Sam hissed, trying to move his mouth as little as possible. “Just focus. Concentrate and get us the hell out of here.”
Tears were staring to form in the heiress's eyes; she was a mixture of terror, sadness, and utter hopelessness. She had probably never even seen anything bad happen from behind her family gates, up high in her ivory tower. Now, she was face to face with a real killer and some of the scariest parts of the real world.
Dajuan paced in front of them hungrily, like a tiger preparing to pounce. He was taking so much sickening pleasure in it, relishing in the suspense. Finally, he made his homicidal decision.
“I choose...you.”
He pointed at Erica and pulled a scary looking blade from his tray of death. He was smiling the whole
time as he approached. Erica's tears fell down her face as she realized that she was on the chopping block.
“P-p-please!” Erica pleaded, her face contorted in a blubbering mess of tears. “Please don't do this! You don't have to! Please! Please!”
Dajuan didn't even consider her words and instead, just marched right up to her, his blade ready to put an end to her life. Sam writhed around in his seat, screaming and trying to break free from his restraints. Erica and her pearl were their last hope. If she died, then the rest of them would follow soon after—and Sam would have to watch it all unfold. He would have to see the life leave each of those girls.
“Focus, Erica!” Sam yelled, not caring if he was heard anymore. There was no point in trying to be sneaky about it now. “You have to focus!”
The blade was moving toward Erica and she leaned her head back as much as possible, sobbing in a desperate attempt to avoid the weapon's sting.
“No!” she cried. “No!”
The entire room shook violently. The metal around them groaned and twisted from the sheer force of the sudden tremor. Sam could practically feel his own bones rattle and his teeth chatter together. He winced. Everything around him—the entire world, it felt like—was horribly rocking off kilter.
Dajuan backed away, looking all around the quivering warehouse in surprise.
“What is this!?” he yelled to one of his men, but they all were just as startled as he was. “What is happening!?”
If there were any scientists with their ears to the ground, they were probably picking up the power of this particular earthquake. It must have nearly destroyed the Richter scale entirely. It might have been in a very small radius but the magnitude of it must have been enormous to be causing this much of a stir.
Sam looked to Erica whose watery eyes were narrow and full of contempt, and he saw her need to survive. She was certainly focusing on keeping herself from being murdered and the pearl around her neck was responding accordingly. Sam was just glad that the pearl didn't need to be in her hand to work.
The legs of the chair that Erica was sitting on snapped off and she landed hard on the floor but that still didn't stop the tremor. She managed to get her hands free from the broken seat.
Some of the equipment around the warehouse fell and clattered on the cement floor. The tray of knives fell down, making the blades clatter all over the floor.
Dajuan looked like a rabid animal, frustrated by the sudden interruption. He glared at the building that continued to shake but his surprise dissipated. Now his need to spill blood took over and he acted like this earthquake was just some minor inconvenience. He regained his footing, raised his blade, and took another threatening step toward Erica. He was looking to resume his work. Erica's face swelled with panic again, but this time there was anger too.
“No!” she roared again.
This tremor was much stronger than the last. The building around them shrieked and wobbled. Dajuan looked up again, as the structures above them fell apart. A section of the warehouse's roof caved in, collapsing right over Dajuan. He dove backward, just narrowly avoiding the debris as it poured down right in front of Erica. More of the roof gave way next. Soon enough, girders and sheets of metal piled on top of one another until they formed an impassable wall between the side of the warehouse that the prisoners were on and the side with their captors.
Erica got to her feet, looking bewildered at the destruction she caused. She was flustered for a few seconds before she realized the others were still tied up. She hurried over and started untying their hands. They were all very clearly still in shock from the ordeal but there wasn't time to recover. Who knew how long Dajuan might be distracted. Ideally, he would have been trapped beneath the wreckage but Sam highly doubted it. The worst people always managed to get out of situations like that unscathed, so they could continue to be a plague upon the world.
“We need to get out of here,” he said.
Sam took a step toward the exit but realized that they didn't have the first pearl. He scanned the floor by the debris, nervous that it was buried beneath the rubble or was now stuck on the other side of the scrap barrier with Dajuan and his men. Thankfully, he caught sight of it on the floor beside the tray of torture instruments that was knocked over during the quake. He hurried over to it and picked it up, making sure to hold it tight.
If they lost one of the pearls, this whole expedition would be a lost cause and be impossible to complete. At least now he was armed with a weapon again if they ran into any more trouble. With both pearls being wielded by himself and Erica, they should be able to handle most obstacles that got in their path.
They pushed open the door and dashed away from the building. Sam couldn't express how relieved he was to see the sky again. He thought that warehouse was going to end up being his tomb but no, they had gotten out alive, and now they just needed to put as much distance between them and Dajuan as possible.
“I can't believe that happened,” Erica said, her fingers clinging to her necklace. “He was really going to kill me.”
“He was, yes,” Sam said bluntly. “He was going to kill us all if you hadn't intervened. You saved all of us.”
Erica's arms were folded, hugging herself tightly while she tried to calm herself from the ordeal they had all just gone through together.
“I really...I really thought I was going to die.”
“I know,” Sam said solemnly. “But you didn't. You made it through. I'm sure you see now why I was hesitant to let you tag along. This can be an exciting job but most of the time, it's just dangerous.”
Sam held out an open hand. “You shouldn't be here, Miss Diosa. You could have died for something that you are barely a part of. I can't have that happen. This isn't your fight. It was really brave of you to want to help and you have done brilliantly but I can finish this for you. Give me the necklace. We can see this through to the end for you. We'll drop you off somewhere safe...”
Erica shook her head firmly. “I can't let you do that for me.”
Sam disagreed. “It's not a problem. I don't mind—”
“But I do,” Erica said. “That pearl is my family's responsibility, which makes it my responsibility too. It's my burden and I'm not going to let anyone carry it for me. I can't put that on anyone else.”
“But you almost died.”
“You said it yourself,” Erica said. “If I hadn't been there, you all would be dead.”
He had made that point only moments before so he couldn't exactly argue against it.
Erica remained as adamant as ever. “I'm not going anywhere. And I'm especially not going anywhere without my pearl. So stop trying to convince me to leave.”
“I just thought—”
“I know, but too bad. I'm staying. You're welcome for saving your lives, by the way.”
Sam couldn't help but let out an annoyed little laugh. “And you're welcome for telling you how to do it in the first place.”
The two of them bickering made Sam nearly forget that Aya and Daisy were even there. He was glad to see that they made it out of that warehouse relatively unscathed too. Aya was looking very dour.
“I'm sorry,” Aya said. “I had no idea they were following. I should have known...of course Dajuan was going to try to get back at the people that got rid of the Wharf Man.”
“No need to apologize, Aya. You have nothing to be sorry for. There was no way of knowing that he was coming. Hell, I thought we were done with everything involving the Wharf Man after Oniel finally went down. Evidently not. So this guy has taken over the empire...seems like a real nice guy.”
“Everyone close to the Wharf Man was bad. You saw how bad Oniel was. He and his twin brother were cutthroats but Dajuan was even worse. He knew more than just killing. He knew how to spread the hurt as far as possible. The Wharf Man was grooming him for years, building him up to replace him someday.”
“And now that day is here...and he's much more prepared for this than we are. The Wharf Man liter
ally chased Purdue under the ocean in a submarine. Is Dajuan going to be that determined?”
“Oh, yes,” Aya said. “Even more...because he has something to prove and a lot of rage. He will chase us to the ends of the earth.”
“Well it's a good thing then that the earth is round,” Daisy cut in.
“I'm surprised you don't believe the earth is flat,” Sam said. “A myth you actually don't believe in? Huh. Consider me flabbergasted.”
“Some myths are just myths,” Daisy said with a shrug. “But that doesn't mean all myths are myths.”
Sam shook his head. “Look at you. Such a philosopher.”
“What are we going to do about this?” Erica asked, still clutching her necklace tightly. “This man will kill us. I really don't want that to happen.”
“You shouldn't even be involved in this,” Sam said and again held out a hand. “Just give me the pearl and you can head home, forget about all of this. Dajuan has no reason to come after you once you are away from us.”
“That might not be true,” Aya said solemnly. “Dajuan is known for his talent for remembering faces. And he is also known to not just kill his enemies, but to wipe out everyone they know or care about. Now that he has seen her face and knows she is an ally of yours, especially since she helped our escape, he will want her head too.”
Erica looked nervous but seemed to gain some comfort from the pearls enclosed in her hand. “I'm not going to leave the pearl to you anyway. If you need it, then I'm going to see it through to the end. We just need to figure out what we're going to do about a murderer like that.”
It was true that the new kingpin of Jamaica posed a significant threat and if Aya was right about him, he could be much more dangerous than the Wharf Man ever was.
“We keep moving forward, avoid any more run-ins with Dajuan. We just need to get the last pearl. Once that's done, we can reunite all three and be done with this before Wharf Man Jr. is able to cut us all into pieces. Who knows, maybe Poseidon will be grateful we brought him his things back and he will get rid of Dajuan for us.”
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11 Page 45
